Node.js project naming conventions for files & folders

Question

What are the naming conventions for files and folders in a large Node.js project?

Should I capitalize, camelCase, or under-score?

Ie. is this considered valid?

project-name     app         controllers             someThings.js             users.js         models                 someThing.js                 user.js         views             some-things                 index.jade             users                 logIn.jade                 signUp.jade     ... 

Answer 1

After some years with node, I can say that there are no conventions for the directory/file structure. However most (professional) express applications use a setup like:

/   /bin - scripts, helpers, binaries   /lib - your application   /config - your configuration   /public - your public files   /test - your tests 

An example which uses this setup is nodejs-starter.

I personally changed this setup to:

/   /etc - contains configuration   /app - front-end javascript files     /config - loads config     /models - loads models   /bin - helper scripts   /lib - back-end express files     /config - loads config to app.settings     /models - loads mongoose models     /routes - sets up app.get('..')...   /srv - contains public files   /usr - contains templates   /test - contains test files 

In my opinion, the latter matches better with the Unix-style directory structure (whereas the former mixes this up a bit).

I also like this pattern to separate files:

lib/index.js

var http = require('http'); var express = require('express');  var app = express();  app.server = http.createServer(app);  require('./config')(app);  require('./models')(app);  require('./routes')(app);  app.server.listen(app.settings.port);  module.exports = app; 

lib/static/index.js

var express = require('express');  module.exports = function(app) {    app.use(express.static(app.settings.static.path));  }; 

This allows decoupling neatly all source code without having to bother dependencies. A really good solution for fighting nasty Javascript. A real-world example is nearby which uses this setup.

Update (filenames):

Regarding filenames most common are short, lowercase filenames. If your file can only be described with two words most JavaScript projects use an underscore as the delimiter.

Update (variables):

Regarding variables, the same "rules" apply as for filenames. Prototypes or classes, however, should use camelCase.

Update (styleguides):

• https://github.com/feross/standard
• https://github.com/airbnb/javascript